Internal-combustion engine



W. A. GILE.

INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINE.

APPLICATION FILED MAY 9. 1.916.

Patented Mar. 30, 1920.

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APPLICATION FILED MAY 91 1 916.

1,335,824; Patented Mar. 30,1920.

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W -A. GILE. INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINE. APPLICATION FILED MAYQ, I9I6'.

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UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

WILLIAM A; GILE, OF CLIFTONDALE, MASSACHUSETTS, ASSIGNOR, BY MESNE ASSIGN- MENTS, TO GEORGE K. WOODWORTH, TRUSTEE, 0F BROOKLINE, MASSACHUSETTS.

INTERNAL-COMBUSTION ENGINE.

Application filed May 9, 1916.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, WILLIAM A. GILE, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of Cliftondale, in the county of Essex and State of Massachusetts, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Internal-Combustion Engines, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to internal combustion engines and more especially to engines of the combined pump and motor cylinder type, either single or double acting, and its object is to provide a simple and efficient means actuated by an auxiliary crank on the crank-shaft for controlling the motion of the sub-piston.

The drawings which accompany and form a part of this specification show an illustrative embodiment of my invention, but it is to be understood that the construction here in particularly described may be widely varied without departing from the scope of my invention as defined by the appended claims.

In the drawings- 7 Figure 1 is a central longitudinal section of a single-acting engine embodying my improved sub-piston control. Fig. 2 is a central longitudinal section taken on the' line 22 of Fig. 1. Figs. 3, 4, 5 and 6 are diagrams showing the positions of the moving parts at various points in the cycle.

In the particular drawings selected for more fully disclosing my invention, 1 represents a frame herein shown as a two-part casing having its parts connected by the bolts 2 and inclosing the lower portion of the engine. Secured to the top of the casing by the'bolts 3 is a cylinder 4, the lower end of which is open and communicates with said casing and the upper end of which is closed by the head 5 attached by the bolts 6 and is provided with a number of fuel passages or flutes arranged lengthwise in its bore and communicating with the combus- Any suitable number of flutes, say from 16 to 20, more or less, may

be used. A spark-plug Sis screwedinto the head are. water-jacketed as shown at 9, .10.

Arranged to reciprocate within the cylinder is a power piston 11,herein shown as Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Mar. 30, 1920.

Serial No. 96,422,

a trunk piston or plunger, and two rods 12 screwed into the lugs 13 projecting inwardly from the walls of the piston connect said piston with the hollow cross-head 14 guided by the ways 15, the lower ends of said rods being shown in the present instance as threaded into the upper portion of saidcross-head. It will be understood, however, that any suitable means may be employed for connecting the piston to its cross-head. A pitman 16 engages the pin 17 extending across the interior of said cross-head and connects said piston to the wrist pin 18 of the main crank 19 to transmit the power developed in the cylinder to the crank-shaft 2O journaled in the bearings 20 which are integral with the engine frame.

A sub-piston 21 is arranged to reciprocate Within the cylinder between the power piston and the combustion chamber A and its rod 22 passes through and is guided by a longitudinal bore in the central core of the power piston,-its lower end being secured to the cross-head 23 by threaded engagementtherewith, a lock-nut 24 being employed if desired to prevent relative movement between said rod and cross-head. It .will be understood of course that I do not limit myself to this particularmode of attaching the rod of the sub-piston to its cross-head. The ends of the cross-head 23 are grooi'ed vertically at 25 and the rods 12 fit into said grooves and thereby act as guides for said cross-head.

The connecting rod 26vis pivotally connected to a stud 27 projecting from one side of the cross-head 23 and to the upper end of the rocker arm 28 which is pivoted to the stud 29 attached to the frame and extending inwardly therefrom. A connecting rod 30 engages the lower end of said rockerarm and its hub 31 is connected by the Wrist pin 32 to the auxiliary crank 33, one arm of said crank forming in the present instance an extension of an arm of the main crank 19, although this is not essential.

The cylinder has an exhaust passage 34 controlled by ,the inwardly opening valve 35 normally held to its seat by the spring 36 which surrounds the valve stem 37 and bears any suitable mechanism, such for example as the tappet 39 actuated by the cam 40 which cooperates with the head 41 thereof, gearing (not shown) being employed to connect the cam shaft 42 with the crank-shaft.

The fuel-inlet 43 is located a short distance above the lower end of the power piston when the latter is in explosion position at ,the end of its up-stroke, as shown in Fig. 2, and may be connected to any suitable source of fuel.

It will be understood of course that the foregoing detailed description comprises various elements which in the precise form shown in the drawings and described herein are not essential to my invention and that these parts may be considered simply as typical of the necessary elements of an internal combustion engine.

By means of the flutes or fuel passages 7 I secure an intimate and substantially perfect mixture of the fuel charge and this results in practically complete combustion. As the power piston approaches the head of the sub-piston the charge which is contained in the space between these two elements is compressed and forced by such compression around the advancing head of the sub-piston through the restricted passage afforded by the flutes or fuel passages and is shot with great force against the cylinder head in a number of relatively small streams.

An explosion of the compressed charge in the combustion chamber acts directly on the head of the sub-piston and by the latter is communicated to the power piston. It is absolutely necessary that the two pistons shall travel at the same rate of speed without the slightest relative movement until the sub-piston shall have covered the inner ends of the'flutes. The reason for this will be obviousv from an inspection of Fig. 2 in which theiparts are shown in the position occupied immediately prior to ignition in the combustion chamber A. Should the power piston begin to move away from the sub-piston before the latter covers the inner ends of the flutes, a portion of the effect of the explosion will be exerted against the lower face of said sub-piston in opposition to the force exerted on the upper face thereof. It is essential also that the subsequent relative movement between the pistons shall be created positively.

The posltive relative movement of the sub-piston with respect to the power piston is created by the auxiliary crank 33 which communicates the necessary motion to the sub-piston through the connecting rod 30, rocker-arm 28 and rod 26. The operation of these elements will be explained with reference to Figs. 3, 4, 5 and 6, on which the several moving parts are indicated by lines identified by the reference numerals cor responding to those used on Figs. 1 and and provided with exponents I, II, III, etc., to designate the successive positions of the parts.

When both pistons are at the upper ends of their strokesv (explosion position) as shown in Figs. 1, 2 and 3, and the charge compressed in the combustion chamber, the valve 35 being closed, the charge is fired and the resulting explosion causes both pistons to descend at the same initial rate of speed and without any relative movement substantially until the power crank 19 which rotates in the direction of the arrows, has passed from its initial position (Fig. 3) sufiiciently beyond its position 19 (Fig. 4) to bring the auxiliar crank 33 and the connectin' rod 30 in almement. At this point thesu -piston is at the lower end of its stroke with its lower face a little above the fuel inlet 43 and the upper face of the power piston is a little below said inlet. The sub-piston, just before reaching the end of its stroke begins to lag and the powei' piston moves away therefrom. p

The power piston continues its descent until it reaches position 11", the end of its down-stroke (Fig. 5) the power crank now being at 19, but as soon as the sub-piston reached the end of its down-stroke and while the power piston was moving from 11 to 11", the former began to ascend, the rockerarm being rotated clockwise by the continued rotation of the auxiliary crank 33 from its position in alinement with the rod 30 and thereby forcing the rod 26 upwardly, so that in the position of the parts represented in Fig. 5, the power piston is momentarily stationary and the sub-piston moving upwardly. The relative movement between the pistons creates a vacuum or 'a partial vacuum in the space between the same in which a charge of fuel is drawn from the inlet 43, and, as will be apparent, the pump ing action which sucks in said charge is created mainly by the rapid upward movement of the sub-piston because the power piston travels'but a short distance from the position it occupies at the end of the downstroke of the sub-piston to its position 11" which is the end of its own down-stroke.

The exhaust valve 35 opens practically simultaneously with or preferably shortly before the commencement of the up-stroke of the sub-piston and the burnt gases of the previous explosion are mechanically expelled by the latter. The power crank continuing its counter-clockwise rotation, the power piston ascends and when the former reaches a point about 240 degrees from its initial position, shownat 19', Fig. 6, the sub-piston has arrived at the end of its up-stroke occupying the position 21" which is above explosion position, the rocker-arm 28 being in line with the connecting rod 26 (Fig. 6). Further rotation of the auxiliary crank to the positions 33, 33" back to its initial position 33 will cause the sub-piston to settle back very slightly to 21, or slightly below 21", then rise to 21 and to 21, and finally when said auxiliary crank has reached its initial position the sub-piston will fall back to explosion position 21. In other words, the sub-piston rises to the position 21 remains practically stationary and then falls back to explosion position. By rising above explosion position it will more effectively expel the burnt gases from the combustion chamber A. The positions of the rockerarm corresponding with those of the auxiliary crank 33" 33 and 33 are indicated in dotted lines at 28 28 and 28, respectively. The dotted lines marked 21 21 and 21 represent the corresponding positions of the lower face of the sub-piston.

Shortly before the sub-piston arrives at its position 21, the power piston has covered the fuel inlet and thereafter-it compresses the charge in the space between its upper face and the lower face of the subpiston. A portion of the gas so compressed passes around the head of the sub-piston through the flutes to the combustion chamber and pneumatically expels the small portion of the burnt gas which was not mechanically expelled therefrom, and thereupon the exhaust valve closes. The power piston then continues its upward stroke, further compressing the charge and driving the same with great force through the flutes into the combustion chamber thereby shoot-.

ing the charge against the cylinder-head in a plurality of relatively small streams and effecting the thorough mixture of the same,

until both cranks having arrived at their initial positions 19 and 33 respectively, the up-stroke of the power piston is completed, and, the sub-piston then being in explosion position as above explained, ignition takes place and the cycle is repeated, therebeing one explosion at the end of every up-stroke or one per revolution of the crank-shaft.

It will be obvious that by duplicating the sub-piston control apparatus, my invention may be applied to a double-acting engine having two sub-pistons, one on each side of the power-piston.

While I have described in detail the relative movement of the parts which I have found to be satisfactory in practice, it will be understood that I do not limit myself specifically thereto, forsaid parts may be variouslyadjusted and timed and other cycles may be effected.

I claim:

1. An internal combustion engine comprising a cylinder, a power piston'and a sub-piston both arranged to reciprocate within said cylinder and to travel in the same direction during the power stroke, a

main shaft provided with two cranks, means actuated by one crank for controlling said sub-piston positivel throughout the entire cycle, said means being constructed for causing said sub-piston to travel in contact with said power piston during a-substantial pormeans being constructed for causing said sub-piston to travel in contact with said power piston during a substantial portion of the power stroke and for causing, subsequently, relative movement between said pistons, and a pitma'n connecting said power piston to the other crank.

3. An internal combustion engine comprising a cylinder, at power piston and a sub-piston both arranged to reciprocate within said cylinder, a main shaft having a power crank and an auxiliary crank, a pitman-connecting said power piston to said power crank, and means actuated by said auxiliary crank for causing positive movement of said pistons in the same direction at the same initial rate and for causing, subsequently, positive relative movement between the same.

4. An internal combustion engine comprising a cylinder, a power piston. and a sub-piston both arranged to reciprocate within said cylinder, a main shaft having a power crank .and an auxiliary crank. a pitman connecting said power piston to said power crank, and means actuated by said auxiliary crank for causing positive movement of said pistons initially at the same rate of speed without relative movement and subsequently at different rates.

An internal combustion engine comprising a cylinder, a power piston and a sub-piston both arranged to reciprocate within said cylinder, said sub-piston being located between the combustion chamber and the power piston, a main shaft having a. power crank and an auxiliary crank, a rocker-arm pivoted adjacent to said shaft, a connectingrod pivotally engaging said auxriliary crank and one end of said rockerarm, a cross-head secured to the rod of said sub-piston, and arod pivotally connecting the other end of said rocker-arm and said cross-head.

6. An internal conrbustion engine comprising a cylinder. a power piston and a sub-piston both arranged to reciprocate within said cylinder, said sub-piston being located between the combustion chamber and the power piston, a main shaft having a power crank and an auxlliary crank, a rocker-arm pivoted ad acent to sa1d shaft,

7 a connecting rod pivotally engaging said auxiliary crank and one end of said rockerarm, and means connecting the other end of said rocker-arm to the rod of said subpiston.

7. An internal combustion engine comprising a cylinder, a power piston and a sub-piston both arranged -to reciprocate within said cylinder, a main shaft having a power crank and an auxiliary crank, a pitman connecting said power piston to said power crank, and means actuated by said I auxiliary crank for causing said pistons to travel in-the same direction at the same rate of speed until the sub-piston reaches substantially the end of its stroke and for causing, subsequently, positive relative movement between the same.

8. An internal combustion engine comprising a cylinder, a power piston and a sub-piston both arranged to reciprocate within said cylinder, a main shaft havinga power crank and an auxiliary crank, a pitman connecting said power piston to said power crank, means actuated by said auxiliary crank for causing said pistons to travel in the same direction at thesame rate of s eed until the sub-piston reaches substantially the end of its down-stroke, for causing, subsequently, positive relative movement between the same, for projecting'the sub-piston above explosion position and then recalling it to explosion position.

9. An internal combustion engine com-- prising a cylinder, a power piston and a sub-piston both arranged to reciprocate within said cylinder, a cross-head, a guide for said cross-head, members connecting said power piston to said cross-head, a pitman pivotally connecting said cross-head to V the power crank, a second cross-head guided and an auxiliary crank, a pitman connect ing said power piston to said power crank, means for causing the sub-piston to travel in contact with the power piston during a substantial portion of the power stroke and for causing, subsequently, positive relative movement between said pistons, and a member connecting said means to said auxiliary crank. I

I 11. An internal combustion engme comprising a cylinder, a power piston and a sub-piston both arranged to reciprocate .within said cylinder, a-main shaft having a prising a cylinder, a power piston and a' sub-piston both arranged to reciprocate within said cylinder, a main shaft having a power crank and an auxiliary crank, a pitman connecting said power piston to said power crank,'means actuated by said auxiliary crank for causing positive movement of said pistons at the same initial rate of speed without relative movement and for causing, subsequently, positive relative movement between the same, and means whereby the charge of fuel in said cylinder is mixed "during compression.

13. An internal combustion engine comprising a cylinder, a power piston and a sub-piston both arranged to reciprocate within said cylinder, a main shaft having a power crank and an auxiliary crank, a pitman connecting said power piston to said power crank, means actuated by said auxiliary crank for causing positive movement of said pistons at the same initial rate of speed without relative movement and for causing, subsequently, positive relative movement between the same, and means whereby the charge of fuel in said cylinder is transferred under pressure from the space between said pistons to the combustion chamberin a plurality of relatively small.

streams.

14. An internal combustion engine comprising a cylinder having a plurality of fuel passages arranged lengthwise in its bore at prising a cylinder having a plurality of fuel passages arranged in its bore near one end thereof, said fuel passages communicating with the combustion chamber of the engine,

a power piston-and-a sub-piston both arquently, positive relative movement between the same. i

16. An internal combustion'engine comprising a cylinder provided with a combustion chamber, a sub-piston and a power piston both arranged to reciprocate within said I cylinder, said sub-piston being located between said combustion chamber and said power piston, a main shaft having a power crank and an auxiliary crank, a pitman connecting said power piston to said power crank, means for causing the sub-piston to travel in contact with the power piston during a substantial portion of the power stroke and for causing, subsequently, positive relative movement between said plstons, anda member connecting said means to said auxiliary crank.

17. An internal combustion engine comprising a cylinder, :1. sub-piston and a power 1 piston both arranged to reciprocate within said cylinder, a main shaft having a crank and an auxiliary crank, a pitman connecting said power piston to said power crank, means I for causing the sub-piston to travel in contact with the power piston during a sub stantial portion of the power stroke and for causing, subsequently, positive relative movement between said pistons, and a mem-,

ber connecting said means to said auxiliary crank.

18. An internal combustion engine comprising a cylinder, a power piston and a subpiston both arranged to reciprocate within said cylinder and to travel in the same direction during the power stroke, said subpiston being located between the combustion chamber and the power piston, a shaft provided with two cranks, means for controlling said sub-piston positively throughout the entire cycle, a member connecting said means to one of said cranks, and a pitman connecting said power piston to the other crank,

In testimony whereof I have hereunto subscribed my name this 22nd day of April,

WILLIAM A. GILE. Witnesses:

Gno. K. Wooowon'rn,

'E. B. ToMLINsoN. 

